Ed Willes: Time for Canucks management to get it right. For once

In the long and morbid history of the Vancouver Canucks there have been three moments when the franchise stood on the precipice of greatness; three moments when the heartbreak kids were poised to deliver the faithful from their suffering.

We won’t spend a lot of time on the details, but the first such moment came in the early 1990s with the Pavel Bure-Trevor Linden team. With a little luck and some adroit drafting — the Canucks held three top-23 picks in the rich 1990 draft — that team should have been a power until the turn of the millennium.

Instead, it produced a couple of decent regular seasons and one Stanley Cup run before it imploded in spectacular fashion. Then everyone was fired.

The second moment came in the early aughts when Todd Bertuzzi suddenly blossomed into the NHL’s premier power forward and the West Coast Express emerged as the league’s best line. All that team needed was a couple of moves around the periphery, a goalie and a couple of decent drafts. Instead, the three drafts from 2000 to ’02 failed to produce an impact player for that group and Bertuzzi was a spent force after two glorious seasons. Then everyone was fired again.

The third moment, of course, is the most painful, largely because it’s still fresh in everyone’s minds. The Sedins-led teams of the late-aughts were the deepest, most talented in Canucks history. All that team needed was one or two trades — and their payroll and depth left them ample room to swing major deals — or a couple of draft picks and there would have been at least one parade down Georgia Street. Instead, well, you know what happened. And, yes, everyone got fired again.

Patience. This is going somewhere.

Now, understandably, it’s hard to think of a team that sits 28th in the NHL as sitting on the verge of something special, but in the next two, three years the Canucks are staring at another watershed moment in franchise history. This statement isn’t the result of an overindulgence in hallucinogens. Rather it’s a reflection of the consensus view of the Canucks’ list of prospects; a list that is regarded by everyone from Craig Button to Troy from White Rock as one of the two or three best in the NHL.

Again, the players in question are well-known to Canucks fandom and require little more commentary here — although Button’s assessment of Elias Pettersson as the game’s top prospect was a lightning bolt. The plain fact is, in terms of quantity and quality, this is the best group of prospects the Canucks have ever assembled and, with some adroit manoeuvring, this team should be relevant again. How relevant is the next question.

Elias Pettersson has been ranked by Craig Button as the top prospect in the NHL.Gerry Kahrmann /
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The Linden-Jim Benning administration is about to enter Phase 2 of The Plan and that presents a more complex challenge than assembling the raw materials. Talent, to be sure, is a big consideration for any franchise trying to resurrect itself, but the real art of team-building lies in other, murky areas.

I mean, if it was as easy as showing up at the draft and picking in the top five, Arizona wouldn’t be last and fans in Edmonton would be a lot less angry. The more pressing issues concern chemistry, leadership, coaching and the assignment of roles, and that’s where the hard questions will be asked of Linden and Benning.

To date, they haven’t exactly inspired confidence with their game plan, and we trust this point doesn’t need further illumination. You need only look at the standings over the last three seasons to understand the organization has failed in its attempt to remain competitive while integrating younger players into the lineup.

But, beginning with the expected signing of Adam Gaudette later this year and the promotion of Thatcher Demko, this same management team will be entrusted with the prime assets that will shape the Canucks’ future. So, should they oversee this crucial stage of the franchise’s history? Should they be allowed to make those key decisions?

These are the crucial questions for the Aquilinis. Linden and Benning have made some glaring errors. They’ve also put together a group of players who could evolve into an NHL power. If you believe this management team can take the next step with that group, the best group in Canucks history, then you extend their contracts. If you don’t, you look elsewhere.

It’s really that simple, but the consequences of that decision will determine the fate of this franchise. Get it right and the Canucks will be destined for great things. Get it wrong and, well, we know how the last three seasons have felt. And everyone will get fired again.

If Canucks history has taught us anything, it’s taught us that an NHL organization is a fragile ecosystem and long-term success is as elusive as true love. But with so much at stake you’d like to see the team’s stakeholders get the next step right.

THE PAT-CAST:We’re on the road in Florida. While the weather is fine and the Super Bowl was tremendous, that first game of the road trip against the Panthers was, in a word, brutal. Jeff Paterson and Jason Botchford break that down, then look ahead, wondering how many more games like that are to come.

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